Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

It's been forever since I seen the Matrix films-- remembering the big scenes but not the overall story-- so I went into this fanedit relatively fresh. On a technical level, "Decoded" was edited very well, with little to no noticeable cuts. Narratively, a few of the minor plot details may fall apart under close scrutiny, but overall it flowed very well and I was hooked all the way through. The ending with Trinity collecting Neo's body was a little clunky and I had to re-read the cutlist to understand what was going on, but once I did I thought it worked very well.

A recommended alternative to "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" or as an abridged version of the two.

First review, so it'll be brief. I loved the first Matrix and enjoyed Reloaded, but I thought Revolutions was a mess with all the train station, Sati, Bane, Club Hell and Zion stuff. But I know somewhere in the second and third films, there's one really solid movie, and this edit came incredibly close to what I'd always hoped for. I especially liked the cleaning up of the Architect to make Neo's choice about hope rather than specifically love for Trinity. That really worked for me, but some of the other changes didn't. The only time this edit lost its path (specifically for me) is when it forced major changes on the original narrative, specifically at the end, where the source material didn't really support the ideas put forward. Still, I have a ton of respect for this ambitious take!

I love the idea of cutting Bane, and Neo has to be blinded, but Trinity living is awkwardly executed and kind of messy. At a minimum, her "I'm here" line could have either been cut or perhaps spoken over black screen to represent Neo's blindness. As it stands, she's "here" on her back and obviously injured and instantly upright taking care of Neo. Then she inexplicably stops taking care of him. Maybe there's a version where he's blinded by the machine flying through him and she still dies, but with a much shorter death scene than the source.

I love cutting Mary Alice out as well to avoid tedious explanations, but the one "cheers" shot of Gloria Foster felt awkward to me. I liked every other part of the scene though as it seemed to be presented in the Oracle's first person as she would see it through her eyes, which is kind of symbolic. I basically think the scene would have worked without showing the Oracle at all.

I also kind of missed Trinity going into the Matrix to take out the power plant. I think the brief shot of her loading in and blowing up the guard shack with the motorcycle would have done it. No need for the agent fight or the big rescue from Neo, but it at least would show her doing...something during that scene.

But these are ultimately nitpicks to a really clever and ambitious fan edit that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you for making and sharing it. Honestly, if the Neo/Trinity ending had stayed a little closer to the source material, I'd watch this instead of the sequels forever, as everything up to that point was more or less exactly what I've always wanted from the sequels. I think I just want a heavy edit without some of the narrative changes at the end. But kudos for ambition, and awesome work on the visuals and sound!!!

Having just seen The Matrix Revolutions: Epic Edition, this edit actually does what I wished Epic Edition had done, for the most part. The narrative is streamlined and comprehensible, much more than the original films in some cases. The only thing that truly holds this edit back is the ending.

Spoilers Begin

The opening with Flight of the Osiris doesn't seem necessary, and I wonder if it would make sense to cut the expository scene entirely. There is very little here which isn't explained later, and it may be interesting to build up to a reveal in the cavern that the machines are digging to Zion. The cuts to the rest of Reloaded are good. Perhaps more could be excised from the burly brawl, but I was never a fan of Bowling Pin Smiths. I was skeptical of cutting Trinity from the Architect scenes, but you convinced me that it could be done, and remarkably little is lost.

Cutting just about everything from the beginning of Revolutions is a great move, of course. The movie slows down while everyone is changing ships and arguing about their plan of attack, so more cuts in that section would be good. I think that avoiding the reveal of a new Oracle could be done, but this edit doesn't quite sell the idea. Perhaps if you cut the scene more severely, showing only brief glimpses of the Smiths and then the Oracle's assimilation, it would be more effective. The attack on Zion is handled very well indeed. Back to Neo and Trinity, I think that the inclusion of Bane is an unfortunate necessity to explain Neo's burned eyes, despite your excellent and creative workaround. It's not that the Sentinel attack is insufficient explanation, it's that you're forced to cut too much from the journey to the Machine City, to the point that Neo's absence from shots is extremely noticeable. Similarly, Trinity's unexpected survival works against the edit since the repurposed footage is so noticeably recycled. Simply having her die after a brief dialogue with Neo would be sufficient.

Spoilers End

In summary, this is the best version of the Matrix Sequels I've seen, and with a few changes to the ending, would be my go-to version. Excellent work!

I must say at almost half the runtime of the two movies it combines, there isn't a whole lot I found myself missing in this edit. There are a couple things that were cut out here that I wish were left in though. I like Agent Smith discovering the ability to jump into an unplugged body, I like Neo in the train station, and I kind of like Neo discovering he can affect the sentinels in the real world. As for additional cuts I wish were made, I was hoping that the Neo vs 100 Agent Smiths fight would be a little trimmed down. I absolutely hate when Neo becomes a smooth CGI creation and the fight becomes cartoonish and uninteresting. The fight starts out good, but I think some of the sillier elements of this could still be cut out to keep it more in line with the original movie's aesthetic.

Of course, the problem with this is that there are SO MANY moments in these sequels that dive into bad CGI that it would be impossible to cut them all so maybe why bother in the Agent Smiths fight? I feel like almost every action sequence in these movies starts out great, but at some point gets too big for its britches and goes full CGI and just sucks you out of it. If it wasn't such a jarring transition and the effects were better and more subtle, it wouldn't be a problem. But that's no fault of the editor here. Jerick can only work with the footage available.

So while I would say it's worth watching this just to save some time with the prequels, it can't fix some foundational problems with the sequels themselves. In the first movie, everybody was scared of one Agent Smith and 5 Sentinels. It was a huge plot point in the movie. In these sequels, Neo leisurely fends off dozens of Agent Smiths and Zion battles millions of Sentinels. It's much too far of a stakes/danger leap to expect the audience to care about it. There are ways of upping the ante without just multiplying it by a thousand.

This was an excellent edit that overall worked very well as a sequel to The Matrix. While I did recall a few missing elements, it's been awhile since I last saw the sequels and I was unable to recognize where the missing parts would have been. The technical elements of the edit are top-notch, and I didn't notice any glaring or jarring transitions. As a story following Neo's journey this edit worked wonderfully. After watching, I did realize that a few of the subplots and side characters felt a little incomplete as times. A few examples are the ships that were supposed be defending Zion are nowhere to be found until Niobe flies in, and when they use the keymaker to get to the source it's a little unclear who's where doing what just before Neo gets in. Also, Trinity's role at the end in machine city is a little unclear but it was easy to assume she stayed with the ship while Neo completed his mission. While these minor shortcomings do create a few plot holes or questions, the strength of this edit is its focus on Neo which made it easy to overlook any omissions. I actually had to look up the original plots to see what had been removed and realized I had completely forgotten about Trinity's death(s) and Bane. Neither of these were missed, and I feel like the story would be unnecessarily bogged down by them. The only parts of this edit I actually didn't enjoy were in some of the fight sequences, specifically the later Neo v Smiths fights when the CGI took over too much and it starting to look like mediocre video game footage. I'll definitely be keeping this edit for next time!